Also known as Leni Robaire
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Ron Hinchcliffe was another graduate from Charlie Glover’s Barnsley gymnasium, where he learned to wrestle alongside Dwight J Ingleburgh, Leon Arras, Stoker Brooks, Butcher Goodman, Blackburn Roberts and Pedro the Gypsy.
He was born in Barnsley on 5th December 1938, with Ronald Priestley his name at birth. Now here’s a bit of trivia. In 1961 Ron Priestley married Doreen Flude. Doreen had two sisters. One sister married Pedro the Gypsy and the other married Trevor Hutchinson, who wrestled as Paul Boyne. So we have three sisters marrying three wrestlers from Glover’s gym.
Ron started wrestling around 1958 or 1959 at the time new promoters like Charlie Glover and Max Crabtree were taking advantage of the removal of the Entertainment Tax. He was a very fast wrestler who worked mainly in the north for independent promoters. He did have one speciality move, remembered by his friend Dwight J Ingleburgh, “Ron Hinchcliffe was the only wrestler I knew, other than Julien Morice, who could execute a swinging backbreaker to perfection.” The name Leni Robaire was used occasionally at the start of his career, the creation of Brian Glover.
Ron was a a member of a wrestling team that called themselves Troupe Continental consisting of Henri Pierlot, Dwight J Ingleburgh,Blackburn Roberts and Ron as Leni Robaire.
In 1968 the family moved from Barnsley to Stratford upon Avon where he continued wrestling in and around the midlands as well as travelling back north for some bouts.
In 1975 the family returned to Barnsley where Ron and his wife became landlord and landlady of the Wharncliffe Hotel on Sheffield Road. In 1984 Ron and Doreen bought the Dove Inn on Doncaster Road Barnsley from Whitbread Brewery. They owned it until 2002 when they sold it to the Merry Monk Pub Company.
Ron Hinchcliffe died in 2019.
Page added 15/02/2024
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